Though you’ve probably not heard of Kevin Dean, you’re almost certainly familiar with his work. He’s the man behind the intricate floral designs that stretch across the marble floors and walls of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, and, as such, claims a good chunk of credit for the 250,000 awestruck faces passing through the structure’s gleaming arches every month. In town for the state visit of Queen Elizabeth II, we caught up with Kevin to discuss his lasting memories of the most ambitious project of his career.
How did you get into design in the first place?
I went to art college in England and worked in advertising for a while, then took a postgraduate course at the Royal College of Art in London. Floral designs became a focus quite early on – I come from a family of gardeners. I know it’s not a very ‘cool’ subject, but I’m just interested in making beautiful images.
What other sort of work do you do back home in England?
It varies really – textile design, illustration. I’ve worked with large murals and ceramic projects before, but the mosque project was still very different to the work I usually do.
How did you come to be involved with the Grand Mosque?
I was approached by the architect at the time, Salma Damluji, who asked the Royal College of Art for names of suitable people who might be able to do the work. I put forward my portfolio and His Highness Sheikh Sultan liked the work he saw and asked me to do some concepts, originally just for the courtyard.
How did the process move on from there?
I presented my first major concept towards the end of 2003, which was very loose, with lots of different ideas. Sheikh Sultan liked the idea of a free-flowing design, rather than traditional Islamic geometrics. He was very open to looking at new concepts of decoration. That was approved, then everything went quiet for a while. Then they came back to me in 2004, asking me to put together some concepts for other areas of the mosque. That’s when I did some designs for the two entrance archways in the courtyard, the main prayer hall entrance floor and walls and then the south entrance floor and north entrance floor, as well as the external archways for both of those entrances. There’s a concept behind those designs as well, which Sheikh Sultan liked. The flowers in the south entrance are from the southern hemisphere, and the flowers from the north entrance are from the northern hemisphere. And then the flowers in the main prayer hall entrance are from the Gulf region. This is to reflect the fact that Islam is a world religion.
Looking back, are you satisfied with the design? Is there anything you wish you’d done differently?
In the main, yes, I’m happy with it. There are always things you can make better in any art project. It’s been beautifully realised and what I’ve done is only a small part of it. The real work was in making it, bringing it to life.
How involved were you while the designs were being realised?
The next stage was to go to the marble fabricators in Milan. I coordinated with them, went to their offices and chose the marble. They had a selection of 37 marbles, and I think we used all of them. I saw a few pieces of the design in Italy, where each leaf was on a two metre square slab, so I had a good idea of the vastness of it at all that point. The individual leaves and stems and so on were cut out using water jets, then all the pieces were transferred to the site and pieced together. It was absolutely amazing when I came out here and finally saw it all laid out.
Where would you say it ranks among your life’s work so far?
It has to be right at the top. It’s quite humbling to come here and see my small drawings realised on such a huge scale.
What sort of impact do you think the project has had on your career as a designer? Has it changed the way you work at all?
Not necessarily how I work, because my ideas about design remain the same. But having this prestigious work in my portfolio has opened up lots of different possibilities, particularly in the UAE. So I’m hoping to come back on a fairly regular basis.
